Legal eagles? Why lawyers love golf

By Paul Gittings, CNN

Updated 1541 GMT (2341 HKT) December 9, 2013

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Fair share? – Rory McIlroy was all smiles when he is unveiled as a Nike ambassador in January 2013, but he now is involved in a legal battle with his former management company over its commission on the multimillion-dollar deal.

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Over to you – Tiger Woods has succeeded McIlroy as world No. 1 after a difficult season for the Northern Irish golfer, who has had troubles on and off the course.

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Handicap court battle – Irish amateur golfer Thomas Talbot issued a lawsuit against his former club when it reduced his handicap. The 75-year-old lost the action and was left with massive legal fees.

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Martin took on PGA Tour – Casey Martin won a lengthy legal battle to be allowed to use a golf cart during PGA Tour tournaments. Martin suffered from a debilitating condition which limited his ability to walk.

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Trump met resistance – American tycoon Donald Trump had to fight off legal challenges to his championship golf course in Aberdeenshire in Scotland, which was unpopular with some local residents.

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Wind battle – Donald Trump Jr. speaks to the media after the first day of a court hearing in Edinburgh on November 12. His father is challenging a Scottish Government decision to allow an offshore wind farm near his championship golf course resort.

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Equality issues – Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was one of two women finally admitted as members at the previously male-only Augusta National, after a long battle by anti-discrimination campaigners. Here she shares a moment with golf legend Arnold Palmer.

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Story highlights

Golf has a reputation for being one of the most litigious sports

Cases range from the seemingly absurd to the serious

Rory McIlroy involved in legal action against former management company

Donald Trump suing the Scottish government over an offshore wind farm

The next time you step foot on a golf course, beware the legal minefield that can await you.

If the game was not difficult enough already, it has a well-deserved reputation of being the most litigious of all sports, bar none.

The cases that come to court cover the full spectrum of grievances and bizarre incidents, from the elderly Irish pensioner suing his former golf club for cutting -- yes cutting -- his handicap, to two-time major winner Rory McIlroy going legal in a high-stakes wrangle over his multimillion-dollar deal with Nike.

From players tripping over rabbit holes, to a pair of New York doctors involved in a landmark legal action after one of them was blinded by the other's errant shot.

It all backs up the main thrust of a publication from 2007 by Craig Brown, a law professor at the University of Western Ontario in Canada.

Exclusive: McIlroy on media scrutiny

"On every fairway, in every stretch of rough, in every clubhouse, in every golf bag, at every swing at the ball, in every set of plans for a new course, in every application for club membership, there lurks a potential lawsuit."

Dalton Floyd Jr. of South Carolina's Floyd Law Firm has made a 40-year-plus career of handling such cases.

Playing at a course in Long Island, Anoop Kapoor hit a shot which struck his fellow doctor Azad Anand in the left eye.

Anand was blinded after the incident and launched a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Kapoor for damages, alleging his friend was negligent for failing to warn of the shot.

Kapoor testified he thought Anand was behind him and that he didn't see anyone between him and the hole when he took his shot. Kapoor unintentionally sliced it, striking Anand with terrible consequences.

Floyd says most claims of this nature are dismissed: "Thank goodness the courts have an understanding that you can't hit the ball straight all the time, particularly the amateur golfer.

When Good teed off, his ball hit a metal post that was holding up the awning just inches in front of his driving mat. The ball ricocheted off and hit him in the left eye.

Good's lawyer claimed Pumpkin Ridge should have known that the metal pole was a danger. Pumpkin Ridge did not respond to CNN's enquiries about the current status of the suit.

Costly repair

During the economic downturn, even well-to-do golfers have felt the pinch, says Floyd, but he warns against what one did to save a few dollars: repairing your own clubs.

He cites the case of a player who took his tee shot -- then the head of the repaired club flew off and got stuck in his playing partner's knee.

Painful for the claimant -- and costly for the do-it-yourself golfer, who was forced to settle the claim.

It's not a position in which former world No. 1 McIlroy should ever find himself, but he is embroiled in a very public legal dispute with his former management agency over its role in his contracts with Nike and other key sponsors.

The agent, Conor Ridge, and the management company Horizon Sports deny the claim and are counter suing in a case which is slated for the courts in October 2014.

McIlroy, whose form has slumped since signing the big-money deals, admitted that it had taken a toll. "I've seen more lawyers' offices and more lawyers this year than I care to see in my entire life," he told reporters at the World Tour Championship in Dubai last month.

Angry Tiger

He also said he was taking advice from Nike stablemate Tiger Woods on how to deal with these pressures, although the world No. 1 himself is at the center of a controversy which threatens to end in a lawsuit.

In a published article grading the tour performance of top players, former PGA pro and now analyst Brandel Chamblee flunked Woods, questioning his integrity and saying that he had been "a little cavalier with the rules."

As evidence, he cited three instances where Woods had been penalized for rules infractions and a fourth where an NBC analyst questioned the drop that Woods made after his ball landed in a water hazard.

This would normally be a cause for celebration, but Talbot took it as a slight, particularly as a court in Dublin heard he was accused of "handicap building" -- or allegedly playing below his ability to get his handicap raised and thereby be able to win more competitions.

Talbot sued the Hermitage Golf Club and its former handicap secretary in the Irish High Court for defamation, but a judge found against him last year and he has been left with heavy costs.

Golf for a long time was a male-dominated sport but as more women started taking part, clubs which restricted membership came under the legal spotlight for alleged discriminatory practices.

Federal law in the United States now requires clubs open to the public to admit women, but Augusta National, home of the U.S. Masters tournament, was a private club and adopted a strict male-only membership policy for 80 years.

But he was unable to capitalize on his early promise and dropped off the tour, although he was a surprise qualifier for the 2012 U.S. Open.

Trump challenge

No article about lawsuits in golf would be complete without mention of U.S. tycoon Donald Trump and his battles to complete a $1 billion development in northern Scotland.

He faced down opposition from locals and environmental groups, including a lawsuit from an 86-year-old pensioner, to get permission to build his championship course on protected sand dunes in Aberdeenshire.

But having built the course, now Trump himself has gone legal after the Scottish government gave planning permission to a massive offshore wind farm just off the coast -- and within sight of his new resort.

Trump has called the 11 turbine scheme a "useless and grotesque blot on our heritage" and has launched a lawsuit to attempt to stop it.

The Scottish government, led by First Minister Alex Salmond, wants all the country's electricity demands to be met from renewable sources by 2020 and is vigorously defending its decision in the court case, which started November 12 in Edinburgh.